Today begins my fourth week here in Tokyo. I'm tired. My right eye still twitches every now and then. My body is tired. My head is tired. It's Monday, and I just don't want to be working.
Saturday, I had a long lunch with a friend at Berry Cafe. It was raining when we had came to ground level from the subway. The Berry Cafe has huge fruits painted on the outside wall, and it caught my eye. So, we decided to hang out there for a while. It's really a dessert place, but luckily they had a couple of salads as part of a set meal for lunch. We got those, then each had a pie/dessert afterwards. They are known for their fruit pies. Not like the American pies with the flaky crust on the top and bottom and gooey, surgary filling. This place had something like 50 different pies. Some were more like cheesecake and others were more like mousse or pudding. We were there for 3 hours. Eat, chatting, and I brought my laptop to show her a few videos. Unfortunately, even after 3 hours, it was still raining. By then, it was close to 4, and she needed to go teach an English class. I wandered back to Roppongi and went to Roppongi Hills to hang out for a bit. Didn't buy anything though.
Sunday morning, I went to the Hanazono shinto Shrine in Shinjuku to check out the market. But because it was Mother's Day, there were only a few vendors out. I did purchase a nice kimono for 5000 yen and a little girl's kimono for 1000 that I will probably cut up and make stuff with. I'm pretty happy with my purchases, but I think I'm going to go back next weekend and pick up another. It took me forever to get out of the Shinjuku station area. Turns out I wasn't really in Shinjuku station but another one really close to it. I got back to the hotel at around 2 and watched 'Closer'. Finished by 4, then ate, then got ready for the show at Tokyo Salon.
Tokyo Salon is in Harajuku/Jingumae area. There's a restaurant below (the pizza smelled really nice), and Tokyo Salon is upstairs. Serenely decorated in a Mid-Eastern influenced style, the dance floor was covered with nice persian rugs. The night is called "Ambient Night", where the music used is more chilled. There were 4 members of Samanyolo performing as well as Mishaal and I. The evening ended with a candlelight tribute to a friend of theirs who had died earlier in the week. It was a sad but beautiful moment.
I felt I've learned a lot these past couple of weeks here. Being alone allows you to think and reevalute your life; being with Mishaal and the friends here have reminded me how priceless life and friendships are.
Get out there and do something good today.
Lily